Â鶹Éç

Some characters in fiction have the power to influence a generation. Lyra from His Dark Materials is one such character. 362 children born last year were named Lyra by their parents, but what is it that makes her so inspirational?

Lyra lives in the alternate Oxford imagined by the author Phillip Pullman, where people’s souls appear as animal ‘dæmons’, and children are being mysteriously snatched from the streets. She is tough, curious, and able to lie with impunity – this helps her on a journey to the arctic to save her friend.

On Woman's Hour, script executive for the Â鶹Éç series His Dark Materials, Xandria Horton, and children’s author, Katherine Rundell, tell Jane Garvey what Lyra means to them.